"...So their overall defense, which already suffered last year under Flip Saunders, is going to be even worse this year ...

Flip Saunders is totally about offense. Larry Brown's approach in Detroit two years ago was to hold the opponent to 42 percent from the floor. Flip's approach last year was to encourage his team to score 98 points a game. Flip is going to allow guys to stay on the floor in spite of defensive lapses and missed assignments. He'll give you a lot of confidence, pat you on the ass and stay with you a longer time if you screw up than other coaches like Larry Brown or Jerry Sloan or Scott Skiles, who don't have as much patience ..."

My question, in preseason, we've shown we can score. Flip and JMax have been putting up points like crazy off the bench. But can we stop anyone? Will we end up like the Adrian Dantley Denver Nuggets, scoring 120 points a game, and never making the playoffs?

Last I checked, last year we beat Cleveland in game 7 by holding them to 61 points, and we lost the Miami series because DWade averaged 34.7 points a game for the series.

Ben was awesome at being physical and not drawing fouls. Also his ability to switch to the perimeter and use his length to play "off", denying penetration are huge assets that don't show up statistically.

The NBA game has been changed to accomodate the declining level of American player development. It has nothing to do with making room for Euros and everything to do with covering up suspect passing, dribbling and shooting skills in domestic youth.

I also think, and of course I could be way off on this, but the change in the nature of the NBA game is one of the reasons that Flip is putting more emphasis on zone defense and zone trapping. That is why he likes Delfino.

John Wooden and Tark the Shark of U Of N LV were famous for their zone trapping defenses.

The thing I didn't like about Detroit after they got off to their great start last year was their cockiness. They started toying with teams by playing it close for three quarters before turning it up in the fourth. They developed this cockiness that you could see in their faces and it turned me off, I started to not like them as a team. But it bit them in the ass during the playoffs when that confidence was not so great, because all of a sudden you can't turn up the level in the fourth quarter because your opponents are also raising their level, too. They got a little too full of themselves last year, but if they come back with hunger, they'll win a lot of games this season because they still know how to win ...

With how short our playoff bench was I am not sure who else Flip could have benched without forefeiting games.

Why is it so hard to understand that we just got beat by a team that was playing better. If Wade/Shaq where healthy in 05 we probably would have lost then everyone would have called for a change.

These things happen in sports. I wonder what the Spurs went through in 04 when they dropped 4 in a row to the Lakers. We all know what the Lakers went through when they lost with homecourt to the Pistons.

We kind of are doing the same thing that we all hated about the LA series. Give the Heat creadit for playing better rather than refusing to believe that we just got beat.

Heat played better. Flip lost control of the team. The calls Wade got though stopped this team from even putting up a fight . 90% of it was the Heat doing good, but the foul calls were the last straw and it caused this team to collapse.

I have seen teams pull out wins even if they are playing worse for most of the game. It doesn't make sense, but it happens.

I still am and will continue to be of the opinion that the best defense is a great offense.

I know somewhere The Low just fell out of his chair, but hear me out.

We applied ZERO pressure against Dwyane Wade except those couple games we posted him up with Tayshaun. If you don't force a man to defend (we also did well when feeding Wallace early against Shaq) then he will be rested and have all his fouls when it's his team's turn on offense.

Flip Murray is a player that Wade may have trouble defending. Rip and Tay are players that Wade will have trouble defending and if Delfino fixes his jumper, likewise, he may be able to pressure Wade.

The aggressor always has the advantage which is why I smile about J-Max. People complain he is a blackhole, and a lousy FT shooter. But if he can pressure his man by drawing fouls, sending him to the bench early and maybe even drawing fouls on the backup, he's creating a passive response (by necessity; foul trouble) from his opponent.

The Pistons need to get a lot faster (tough with a PG who cannot run a 3 on 1 fast break), and a lot more aggressive. Hoisting open jumpers off of screens will no longer be good enough. Great passing will no longer be enough. The Pistons will have to play TO THE HOOP and IN THE PAINT.

Yes the team has to get those paint points up and stop relying so much on 3's. Live by 3 and die by the 3. The 3 worked for SAN in the 05 Finals but thats not going to happen every year.

Ideally and what I believe Dumars is trying to do is build a solid all around team that can play at both ends of the floor because you never know what the NBA is going to do next season.

Its unfortunate that they keep tweaking with the rules but I think they are trying to reach a certain average PPG quota and once they reach that or surpass it then I expect that they will start throttling it down with more defensive advantages.

Yes but thats changing a fundamental part of the game. I would imagine most average fans have not even noticed the rule tweaking they have been doing. They did change the back court violation time a while back.

The aggressor always has the advantage which is why I smile about J-Max. People complain he is a blackhole, and a lousy FT shooter. But if he can pressure his man by drawing fouls, sending him to the bench early and maybe even drawing fouls on the backup, he's creating a passive response (by necessity; foul trouble) from his opponent.

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A lot of that comes from coaching. As much as I bashed Mo last year, watching him play for the Lakers the past couple games, I think he's going to thrive with them, and most of the reason is coaching. They have him moving without the ball and getting more wide open looks.

Have to wonder why Flip didn't have Mo playing with Delfino, last year, and having Mo do more than just stand in the corner waiting for open J's.

Like Wave said, if you don't make your man work on D, he has tons of energy left for O. Which is why no great scorer ever covers Rip. And when Flip has players standing around waiting for open shots, they get covered by the best the other team has.

Are the 'Stern rules' supposed to elevate the game? I think Stern sees added PPG in $ signs and has lost the game completely. And it will trickle down soon to the college ranks and then high school ranks. Defense will become little more than staying off-the-body and waving your hands in the air.

I think over the next couple seasons I will take more pleasure in watching a pick-up street ball game than watching the NBA.